It appears Maruti has finally figured out how to make a car stand out in a mass of small cars
The next line of this famous George Michael song goes, I gotta get inside you. And while I’m pretty sure that the singing Greek, as he referred to himself did not not mean a car (or a woman apparently) the headline just suits this car. This is a funky car, design elements inside and outside are all about making this car stand out from the teeming crowd of small cars in India, most of them Maruti’s. It is a car that you want to get inside thanks to its outside.
Maruti management went to great lengths to convince us that they’ve designed this car for millennials. Now, let me get one thing straight, I’m not a millennial. And in case you didn’t know who millennials are, they are the younger audience and depending on who you ask, the age group ranges between 20 and 35. But for car buying purposes, these are younger first-time car buyers between the ages of 25 and 35. But as one of my marketing maven friends explained to me, ‘millennials’ are actually a convenient to categorise buyers you really can’t categorise too well.
But we do know certain things about younger car buyers, sure many of them aspire towards owning a German luxury brand, but they want all the toys. And, they do want their cars and bikes to stand out. And Maruti seems to have realised this, you would expect India’s biggest car company to be a bit fuddy-duddy and slow off the mark, but Maruti was the first carmaker to get Apple CarPlay into India. And with this car they have made the small car cool again.
Again, let me get one thing out of the way, the Ignis is no ‘performance’ car. Sure, like most Suzuki small cars since the ‘new’ Swift came out in 2004, it handles and rides very well. The steering is sharp and ride fairly smooth; this car ticks all the boxes. It has the standard 1.2MPI petrol engine tuned to 82 horsepower and the 1.3DDiS diesel engine tuned to 74 horsepower; the same engine options as the Swift.
It comes with an optional Automated Manual Transmission, or ‘Auto Gear Shift’ (AGS) as Maruti calls it. Driving both the petrol and diesel AGS, you can see that Maruti has worked on improving this technology ever since they brought it in with the Celerio. The Ignis is the first hatchback in the Maruti family that has the AGS on the diesel, although Maruti had mated the DDiS to an AGS transmission on the Dzire earlier. On the petrol variant you can’t make out gear changes at city speeds, sure there is a palpable shift shock when you want to go fast and really mash the accelerator. But treat the accelerator gently, and the Ignis is surprisingly smooth and efficient. On the diesel AGS, things are not that smooth, there is a bit of jerkiness during shifts but still, the Ignis diesel AMT is a very good implementation of the gearbox.
So that is the mechanical and performance part of the Ignis done because this car is all about the design and features. Just look at the outside, the first thing you notice when you see the car is the headlights popping out of the grille and on the top-end Alpha variant you get the headlights integrated with daytime running lED lights, a first at this price range. The clamshell insert on the bonnet’s side is inspired by the Vitara SUV and the high tall-boy sort of stance of the Ignis does give a sort of SUV feel.
The most noticeable features however involve the rear C-pillar. The first is the 45-degree kinks on the roof, most hatchbacks end abruptly, this kink which really doesn’t compromise rear headroom does give this car a rather unique ending. Coupled with the sharply raked window line, which does in my opinion reduce glass area a bit in the car, the rear does stand out on the Ignis. But if it disn’t stand out already, there are the three stripes stamped onto the pillar. The three stripes aren’t as some of you will suspect inspired by a German sportswear company but from the Suzuki Fronte coupe, a Guigiaro designed car from the 1960’s. There is one thing about the outside that I’m not terribly fond off, and that involves the rear end as well, the sides of the car taper a bit towards the end, thus the wheel arches flare out a fair bit. It really gives the Ignis the impression of having a large butt. Specifically a small waist and a large butt. I’m just saying. And well, the taillights could have carried the funky theme as well with lED clusters, but for now they just look ordinary.
But then the insides, the cars have coloured accents for the front door handles and the central console and the rear-window kink (on the higher variants) with the Tinsel Blue and Uptown Red colours (I don’t think up colour names, and yes, they’re weird) coming with body-coloured options, other colour choices come with silver inserts. But everything else is cool too. The Black and Ivory dual-tone finish, the design of the air-conditioning vents, the switches for the a/c controls on the top-end Alpha variant and the way the infotainment system juts out like a tablet.
On the top-end Alpha variant, the touchscreen system, which is the same as on the Ciaz, S-Cross, Baleno and Vitara Brezza, looks different here because of the way it has been placed. And the Ignis is the first variant which comes with the option for Android Auto, Google’s plug-and-play option for Android devices. Unlike Apple CarPlay in India, the Android Auto variant licensed by Maruti includes Google Maps navigation support (over and above the in-built navigation in Maruti’s system) with live maps data (if your Android smartphone is running on a data network).
Maruti, which will sell the Ignis using the Nexa network of showrooms also offers customisation options, starting with roof wraps in geometric designs, which might seem weird, but Maruti management feel that millennials like customisation. The Ignis has been priced starting from Rs 4.59 lakh for the base Sigma variant petrol to Rs 7.80 lakh for the Alpha variant diesel. The Alphas variant petrol engined option which will probably sell the most costs Rs 6.69 lakh. Both petrol and diesel AGS options come in the middle Delta and Zeta specification levels (lacking the colour touchscreen sadly). The Ignis is very well priced, although Maruti will have to take some interesting pricing decisions when the third-generation Swift comes later this year.
As for ‘None of a Kind’ Maruti’s tagline for the Ignis, I’m not so sure. As for the car, I’m pretty sure it will attract the buyers Maruti wants but also their parents. After all, funky is just a state of mind.